West Coast Fantasy Baseball Association
2006 BASEBALL LEAGUE
FROM THE STANDS
Archbishop Riordan High School
April 23, 2006
by Jim Realini
Wow!! Three games in an unscheduled triple-header played under beautiful weather (IT FINALLY DID NOT RAIN!!) I apologize for the tardiness and brevity of the reporting here but there was some difficulty getting a box score from the St. Louis Giants and I ran out of time going to Las Vegas.
San Francisco Giants (Bennett-Lee) 13 St. Louis Giants (Hughey-Weishaar) 10
Frank Weishaar pitched a brilliant game and had a commanding 10-5 lead built on some solid hitting and fielding by the St Louis Giants (why not call them the “Gashouse Gang” instead?). Then coach Weishaar found out that good pitching in this league means two guys because you can only pitch six innings. The 7th inning was a travesty with enough walks and a couple of hits that not only gave SF 8 runs, but used up all the time (mercifully). It was interesting that while co-coach Mike Hughey was one of the horribly ineffective pitchers in this game, he did pitch a brilliant 9 inning game the next weekend in Las Vegas. We all hope that John Riley recovers from his shoulder (again JR!! get another doctor!!) injury suffered when he inexplicitly blew through the stop sign at third and crashed ineffectually into the tough Kim “Snuffy” Rupert. If you went to the Bakersfield Berman Tourney Banquet, you’ll remember who “Snuffy” really is; for those that didn’t look up Snuffy Stirnweiss from the early days of baseball.
Oakland A’ (Mello) 12 Fresno Giants (Terra-Realini) 8
The noon game saw an old fashioned “good game” between the Oakland A’s and the Fresno Giants. Sil Krevocheza and Mark Fitzpatrick combined to get the win on the mound for Oakland while Dave Chilcote and Joe Gagliardo pitched well until the 8th to earn the loss. Kevin Zimmerman turned in a brilliant game ending double play to snuff out the Giants last gambit. Earlier the A’s pulled off a terrific 9-4-3-2 out at the plate to kill a Giant rally. David Gamson inspired the A’s with three big base hits while Steve Dennis and Kevin Zimmerman each punched out two singles. Krevocheza, Yost, Vigil, and Fitzpatrick also chipped in singles to power the A’s.
Dave Decruz, Joe Gagliardo, and Jim Realini each had two hits apiece for the Giants with Dave and Joe blasting big doubles each. Rolly Hofstedt also punched a double, while Chilly, Michael Simon, Greg Terra and Lynn Harkrider each pasted singletons.
Yomiuri Giants (Schmuck-Miller) 12 Philadelphia A’s (Luis) 4
Mark Gemello pitched 6 innings, walked only one, gave up 2 unearned runs in claiming the win for the Yomiuri Giants. Mark has now pitched 12 innings and has allowed only two unearned runs. Yomiuri’s tight defense has a lot to do with that! Rob Weber went 2 for 4 scoring four runs with 2 RBI. Rob also pitched two innings giving up two unearned runs. Rob's runs were unearned because Michael Miller missed the world's easiest grounder forcing the inning to be extended. Adam Schneider reached base in each of his five at bats by getting hit by a pitch, walking three times, and punching a base hit while scoring three runs. Mike Miller drove in 3 ribbies with a 3 hit day.
After four rainouts, the Philadelphia A’s finally got to play ball. With such a short spring training, the A’s staggered to a shaky start and then tried to make a game of it. Led by rookie Erik Hoffman’s 3 singles and Ken Calloway’s 2 singles and double combined with two hits by Craig Alexander and Dave Gayner, Don Luis, Sil Krevocheza each adding singles, the Philly A’s showed that they have the bats to be reckoned with, but not enough today. The Philly A’s had good relief pitching performances by Dave Gayner and Erik Hoffman backed by some great outfield plays by Mike Hilton, Erick Hoffman and Dave Gayner to stop a couple of Giants rallies.
Reminder to all regular players, do not forget to tell your coach by Thursday morning, before NOON if you are going to play or you will lose your spot on the team for the weekend to a pool player.